MKVToolNix v7.9.0 released

Hey,

I’ve released MKVToolNix v7.9.0.

First of all a note to all Windows users: I’ve renamed the downloads slightly. They’re now named e.g. mkvtoolnix-32bit-7.9.0-setup.exe etc. The difference is that 64bit builds use …-64bit-… instead of …-amd64-… and that the 32bit builds include their architecture (-32bit-) in their name for the first time. This was done in order to reduce the confusion sown by the term »amd64« which denotes the processor architecture but not the manufacturer. Many people weren’t aware of that differentiation.

As for the changes in this release: A couple of important bugs have been fixed, e.g. a very old bug in handling MPEG-1/2 video preventing the detection of such tracks; if --sync was used at the same time as --default-duration then --sync was ignored; mkvinfo’s exit codes were wrong (this may trip up frontends using mkvinfo!); handling of E-AC3 in MPEG transport stream in certain situations etc. See below for all the details.

Since the previous release a serious amount of work has gone into the new GUI, MKVToolNix GUI. It has reached a state in which I consider it fit for wider use. I’ve therefore removed the preview warning and included it in all the packages that I provide (both Windows and Linux).

If everything goes according to plan then the next release, 8.0.0, will see the old GUI (mmg, mkvmerge GUI) be marked as being deprecated – meaning there will be a popup message warning you about this fact when you start mmg. Two releases later, with 8.2.0, the old GUI will finally be removed among with all support for the wxWidgets toolkit.

Of course all of this depends on the number and seriousness of bugs found in the new GUI ;) Therefore these plans are not set in stone.

Changes for package maintainers: configure will now detect the presence of the Qt libraries version 5.2.0 or later by default and use them if they’re found. This means that at the moment both GUIs (mmg and MKVToolNix GUI) will be built unless you tell configure otherwise. There are several switches that deal with the various toolkits:

build system: configure will now check for Qt by default. If at least v5.2.0 is found then the Qt versions of mkvinfo’s GUI and the new mkvtoolnix-gui will be enabled. You can affect this detection with the options --disable-gui (turns off all GUIs; works the same as before), --disable-qt (will compile the wxWidgets GUI for mkvinfo and mmg) and --without-mkvtoolnix-gui (will compile the Qt version of mkvinfo’s GUI but no mkvtoolnix-gui).

2015-05-07 Moritz Bunkus <moritz@bunkus.org>

mkvinfo: bug fix: mkvinfo would exit with the wrong return code (0 instead of 2) if a non-existing file name had been given. Fixes #1182.

2015-05-05 Moritz Bunkus <moritz@bunkus.org>

mkvmerge: Two more characters are now escaped in the container and track properties output in verbose identification mode: [ is replaced with \b and ] with \B. This is needed for reliable parsing by other programs, e.g. GUIs.

MKVToolNix GUI: new feature in the chapter editor: added features »clamping time stamps of sub-chapters to their parent’s time stamps«, »expanding time stamps of chapters to encompass their sub-chapters’ time stamps« and »shifting start and end time stamps by an offset«.

2015-04-22 Moritz Bunkus <moritz@bunkus.org>

all: permanently removed the build times tamp from the version information and the corresponding configure option.

2015-04-18 Moritz Bunkus <moritz@bunkus.org>

MKVToolNix GUI: new feature: the main window’s size, position and state (maximized/minimized) is saved on exit and restored on startup.

MKVToolNix GUI: new feature: the GUI is now fully translatable. The German translation has been completed for the GUI, too.

2015-04-17 Moritz Bunkus <moritz@bunkus.org>

mkvmerge: bug fix: fixed --sync not doing anything if --default-duration is used for the same track, too.

2015-04-16 Moritz Bunkus <moritz@bunkus.org>

mkvmerge: bug fix: fixed aborting file identification with an error message about »aac_error_protection_specific_config« that happened for some files. Fixes #1166.

mkvmerge: enhancement for MPEG program stream handling: mkvmerge will only look for additional files automatically if the source file begins with »VTS_…« and just if it ends in a number. E.g. when reading »video_1.mpg« another file called »video_2.mpg« will no longer be read automatically. Implements #1164.

2015-04-12 Moritz Bunkus <moritz@bunkus.org>

MKVToolNix GUI: enhancement: display country names in addition to country codes.

MKVToolNix GUI: enhancement: implemented often used languages and country codes.

MKVToolNix GUI: chapter editor enhancement: implemented defaults for the language and country settings for newly created chapter names.

mkvmerge: new feature: track selection can be done by language codes as well. Affects the options --audio-tracks, --button-tracks, --subtitle-tracks and --video-tracks. Works only for containers that actually provide a language tag. Implements #1108.

source code: bug fix: Accidental uses of the »long double« type have been converted to normal »double«s. This fixes compilation on platforms which don’t support the »long double« type in combination with Boost::Math. Fixes #1150.

The new GUI is very nice, but UX-wise I see a regression: it’s easier now to forget to set the output file and mux in the wrong place. It’d be nice to have this control always visible on the bottom or the top.

Oh, and when there are no jobs and a file is dropped onto the GUI it’d be useful to create a new one automatically with this file.

I’m not sure about the output issue. The tab’s title is already set from the output file name, and I don’t want to break up the clean separation between the three tabs input, output and attachments. I’ll await more feedback on this before adjusting it.

Matroska is still being developed, albeit slowly. Currently there is an effort ongoing turning the EBML and Matroska specifications into IETF standards.

Apart from that new features are introduced from time to time. What we’re really lacking, though, is people willing to work on implementations, both on muxers (e.g. ffmpeg, gstreamer, MKVToolNix) as well as on demuxers (ffmpeg, VLC…). Ideas are nice, sure, but not worth a lot if there’s no one implementing them.

Hi, I’m trying to install 7.9.0 on my Fedora21 box. I’ve followed the directions found in Fedora21 chapter in ‘Downloads’ page, but am receiving this message: Package mkvtoolnix-7.9.0-1.x86_64.rpm is not signed. Currently have 7.8.0 running, AFAIR its install went smoothly. Am I missing something? TIA

I’ve had problems with my automatic build process regarding the signing of the packages. Maybe the packages for Fedora 21 are affected, too. As I’m out of town for a couple of days I won’t be able to look into it before early next week, though.

Well, it seems like you have not simply re-checked, you definitely DID something because I am now an happy ‘Birds’ user on Fedora21, no more ‘not signed’ message. Thank you for what you did, whatever it was. :)

Well, the packages were indeed unsigned at one point due to the aforementioned problems with the automatic build process, but I had that fixed already by the time your first comment was posted. Since then I haven’t touched the packages for 7.9.0 anymore. That’s why I said »I haven’t done anything«.

It’s quite possible that you’ve downloaded the package when it was still unsigned, of course.

I have been using mkv merge for ages, i just updated to latest version and have to say this new gui that i have read about above which is giong to replace the older design is very unworkable put beside the old 1 have used and have been using to for such a long time

the design of mkvmerge is simple clean and fast the new gui is plain and simple not auywhere close to that is seems clunky and hard to work and seem more time consuming

i dont like how there no option in it to disable tags i dont want added like –disable-track-statistics-tags which really needed to be disabled as a defualt atliest you can disable them the new gui has no such option that i can find.

”8.2.0, the old GUI will finally be removed among with all support for the wxWidgets toolkit.”

iam sorry to say when released,i will not updating to it as just cannot get used to the new gui, iam mmg guy and so used to easy and simple design i dont think i get used to new design of this updated design, if you could keep the old mmg and give use users a choice atleast on what we use i will allways keep my version updated but if this is new design is forced iam done will stick to last version leting the user use simple and fast old mmg design that we all have know for so long and love : )

may i ask how does 1 disable the install of the new designed gui as i now have 2 icons added to my desktop, i woulod like to only install older gui.

There is an option to disable the statistics tags. Go to the “output” tab, click on the button next to the “custom options” input box. In the dialog shown you can select the option for disabling the statistics – and you can even set that to be the default for new muxing jobs.